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2020 in Google Searches

Google Searches in 2020

  • 09 December 2020
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This crazy year is almost over, and things changed quite a bit. While staying socially distant, people spent more time online. I’d like to take a look back and see what people searched for on Google throughout the year in the United States. 

The top 4 searches on Google in 2020 were not surprising, and three of them were coronavirus related. 

  1. Election Results
  2. Coronavirus
  3. Kobe Bryant
  4. Coronavirus update
  5. Coronavirus Symptoms 

I think I personally searched all of those things at some point during the year, if not more than once. 

One of the biggest things that we use Google for is to look up information about things that we don’t know. The top five searched definitions in 2020 were: 

  1. WAP 
  2. Entanglement 
  3. Antebellum
  4. Pandemic
  5. Asymptomatic 

A big trend in 2020 was making things in the kitchen to fill our time. Sourdough bread was the number one searched recipe this year, as people across the nation, myself included, started making sourdough bread at home. Did you jump on that trend? 

Sometimes search results don’t make quite as much sense. When people were looking up why….. the number one search result was “Why were chainsaws invented?”, followed by a few more logical searches such as “Why is there a coin shortage?” and “Why was George Floyd arrested?” 

Interestingly, when you look at other countries, they also had eyes on the US. Australians, Canadians, Irishmen, and Filipinos were searching for information about the US Election more than anything else during 2020, and many other countries such as Germany, England, Brazil, and Mexico.

All of this information was taken from a Google tool called Google Trends. Google trends is a great way to see what people are looking for and when. You can see how trends increased or decreased over time, and if there is seasonality in their searches, such as “superb owl.”

I encourage you to go check it out and learn more about some of the specific topics you are interested in.